A tragic tale of bureaucratic incompetence.Glasgow Corporation Markets Department owned & operated the slaughterhouse & Meat Market as well as the Fish & Fruit Markets. The original plan was to have built one massive joint market on the site of the Jacobs Biscuit works in Gallowgate near the railway sidings but the officials forgot that they had given Jacobs a long lease which they would not surrender, leading to the use of Blochairn for the Fish & Fruit Markets.The new abbatoir was planned in the 60's & the Corporation was told by the traders at this stage that it was too big as the trend was for people to consume less meat but the prestige of having a brand new EEC standard enterprise blinded them to the future day-to-day operating expense.From the very start the traders were against this massive development as at the end of the day they would have to pay for it but were completly ignored. As usual various delegations were sent to all parts of the globe at the ratepayers expense to learn from existing systems & what happened ?, yes, the Glasgow one was different from them !! The lairages (holding units for livestock) were far too big (the biggest in U.K. apart from one at the docks on the South Coast), the slaughter line system had a "z bend" instead of a "u bend" to save space/money & this caused many breakdowns when operational & once the building was "topped out" the Corporation turned round & said to the traders "here's your building, now run it". It ended up being run by a holding company comprising the slaughtermen who had no training in running businesses.The operating costs were enormous & the manager had many of the unused chills leased out to hold butter & other goods. It costed less to have animals slaughtered elsewhere & transported into Glasgow for sale than to have them killed on site. Eventually the time came for the Meat Market to be modernised & thank goodness money was tight so a very much smaller one was built at Duke Street with a vast reduction in firms trading there.

For Christmas (my family knows my odd predilictions) I was given a posh brochure from 1912 all about the brand new abattoir - there's loads of fascinating maps and pictures. I'll scan them as soon as I have time...

I know this is an old post but I just found it, I explored this place top to bottom before it was demolished. Didn't take many photos but I got plenty of video (hours worth) ...there's a couple minutes of it on

ross_drew wrote:I know this is an old post but I just found it, I explored this place top to bottom before it was demolished. Didn't take many photos but I got plenty of video (hours worth) ...there's a couple minutes of it on

Always good when old posts are dug up. I remember lorry loads of sheep travelling along Duke Street on their way to slaughter. My granny lived across the road in Dunchatten in a close called the pen before being moved to Whitevale flats.

I believe cattle were also onloaded from railway wagons at the "Cattle Bank" in the Caley railway works in Springburn, then herded down to Duke Street, presumably during the night. It must have been quite a spectacle!

I started work with the railway in the Civil Engineer's office in Blythswood House, not far from the square of the same name. One of my tasks was to compile reports of incidents of sheep and cattle wandering on to or being killed on the railway. Logically, most of the locations were rural, usually on the West Highland line. I was surprised to learn that a cow had been struck by a train at Duke Street, quite some distance from pastures green. It looked rather strange on the register. On enquiring, it appeared that the poor beast had escaped from the abbatoir there. At least it died free....... There was no word if the meat was reclaimed and used.